Why is the Expert Market Important?
The Expert Market offers a regulated trading venue where broker-dealers can satisfy their best-execution obligations. It offers insight into activity that would otherwise be hidden in the opaque Grey Market.
How is Expert Market different from the Grey Market?
The Grey Market is an opaque market where broker-dealers are not willing or able to publicly quote OTC securities given the lack of investor interest, company information or regulatory compliance.
Unlike the Grey Market – where this is no public quote at all – the Expert Market provides additional price transparency, as it allows for unsolicited quoting.
How are Companies affected by these Changes?
The answer to this depends on the market on which your securities trade. In order to be quoted by broker-dealers on the Pink Market, a company must provide current public disclosure on an ongoing basis. This may include disclosure provided via the SEC’s EDGAR filing system, through a non-U.S. stock exchange or regulator, or to OTC Markets Group directly via our OTCIQ platform. Companies that do not take the necessary steps to make current disclosure available pursuant to the Pink Current or Pink Limited Guidelines may migrate to the Expert Market. Visit the Information for Pink Companies section of our website for further details.
What are the Key Dates for the Implementation of Rule 15c2-11?
We have asked companies to provide the required disclosure to OTC Markets by June 30th. This request was to ensure that our Issuer Compliance Team had sufficient time to confirm the availability of current information and update market status for a company’s securities prior to the rule’s compliance date on September 28th. We continue to process disclosure requests received after June 30th, however we may not be able to process all such applications prior to September 28th.
Under new Rule 15c2-11, Securities that do not meet the Rule’s current public disclosure requirements will be removed from Pink as of the September deadline.
